


Things Like This Happen Every Day

by psiten



Series: SASO 2015 Fills [49]
Category: Haikyuu!!, Tokyo Babylon, X -エックス- | X/1999
Genre: Angst, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, M/M, Tokyo Babylon Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-08-25
Packaged: 2018-04-17 05:29:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4654104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psiten/pseuds/psiten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>"Tooru-san!" Tobio pounded on the hospital door, heedless of the crowds that'd melted into a faceless mass. He could see the "Surgery in progress" sign glowing in his mind, even with his eyes closed. "Tooru-san! Tooru... -san..."</p>
</blockquote><p>Crosspost from the 2015 Sports Anime Shipping Olympics, Bonus Round 2. Original prompt from <a href="http://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/4403.html?thread=1138227#cmt1138227">aeglos</a> requested a Tokyo Babylon AU for Oikawa Tooru/Kageyama Tobio.</p><p>Who was I to say no?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things Like This Happen Every Day

     "Tooru-san!" Tobio pounded on the hospital door, heedless of the crowds that'd melted into a faceless mass. He could see the "Surgery in progress" sign glowing in his mind, even with his eyes closed. "Tooru-san! Tooru... -san..."

     His throat was raw with crying, and his breath was heavy enough to choke the life out of him, but he couldn't stop wailing that name. Why? Why would Tooru-san have stepped between him and that woman's knife? He'd been ready to take responsibility for whatever happened, he'd thought, but Tooru-san's eye might never recover now.

     And it was all his fault. He could beat the walls until his hands bled through his gloves, but it would never bring back what Tooru-san had lost. Because of him. Because of someone like him...

     If only he could go back... if only...

     The crack of his fist against the wall echoed through the room, and through his mind as if it could cut him loose from all the thoughts he couldn't stop thinking. His face was wet and hot with tears, his head pounding, and his heart running ragged, with Tooru-san's name the only words he could remember. That one stream of blood felt worse to remember than any wound he'd ever taken in the course of duty.

     "--o!" a soft voice seemed to say, half-begging, half praying. He tried to slam his hand again to make the sound go away, but he couldn't move his arm. Someone had cradled his hand between to of theirs. Someone warm, who spoke gently in his ear. "Tobio. Please, Tobio. You'll hurt yourself." He heard the same rawness in that voice he could hear in his own, as if that person had been talking for hours. Begging for hours.

     That person. That voice was his brother, wasn't it?

     He struggled to shape his lips into another name than the one he'd been crying so long. Forcing out the sound was like vomiting up his own heart. "K-koushi-kun? Is it... is... Tooru-san...?" Blinking open his eyes, he saw the floor underneath him growing clearer through the haze of tears. Wood, not linoleum tile. And that scent... had Koushi-kun made tea? More than that, no one else was anywhere to be seen?

     "Koushi-kun, where are we? Where's Tooru-san?"

     "Honestly," his brother sighed, grabbing him into a hug. Tobio didn't have the strength to push away, or to hug him back, and didn't even know which he wanted to do. It was all he could do to relax against Koushi-kun's shoulder and not sob. "I knew you were out of it, Tobio, but you don't even remember that? You were making such a scene, I had to carry you out of the hospital and bring you all the way back home -- piggyback! -- which you did _not_ make easy!"

     "I'm sorry, Koushi-kun."

     "Tobio..." He sounded so heartbroken, Tobio could feel his own heart shivering as if it might burst any moment. But right before it did, his brother sighed and stroked his hair. "Shush, now. If you want to make it up to me, you can drink this tea. There's soup, too."

     "I don't..." The words stopped.

     How could he tell his brother he felt too sick to eat anything? But how could he sit here drinking tea when Tooru-san was back at the hospital, suffering for mistakes he, Tobio, had made?

     "Spit it out, Tobio. Whatever you want to say."

     He swallowed once. That was all he could manage. "I don't think I can."

     His brother's hug was the only thing keeping him upright now. All the furious grief and fear that had kept him crying for... however long it had been... dissolved until he thought he'd melt away completely. But Koushi-kun was there to hold him, and catch his tears with his shoulder. "To-chan is still in surgery. The doctor promised to call me when it's finished, one way or the other. For now, we have to send our best thoughts to To-chan, and hope he'll be okay. Now, I know what amazing things you can do when you try, Tobio. But do you think you can try your hardest to wish for To-chan's recovery unless you eat? Do you think that would make To-chan happy?"

     The thought that nothing he did could make Tooru-san happy now pumped through his blood, making it so thick, he was surprised his heart could still move it. But he couldn't say that. Not to Koushi-kun. His brother would laugh. Would remind him of all those times when Tooru-san had laughed, and promised, "I'd do anything for my beloved Tobio-chan!" But those had been jokes about fast food meals, silly fake dates, and rides in Tooru-san's car when he was late for a job. This was real.

     "Tobio. Here."

     He opened his eyes one more time, and there was Koushi-kun, holding a spoonful of chicken noodle soup in front of his mouth. Letting his brother feed him that one bite, he had to admit... the salty, warm broth made his throat feel better than his tears ever could have managed. It was odd. He hadn't thought anything could taste like anything but ash ever again. Maybe, just maybe, he could get through this night. And he could only hope that Tooru-san would, too.

~/ _but I... loved... you_ /~

     Sometimes he thought that might have been the last happy day of his life, going to see Tooru-san in the hospital the next day. Meaning to beg for forgiveness, daring to hope. Sometimes, he honestly thought he'd been happy that day. Other days, he wondered if happiness built on a lie was truly happy, or in fact the worst loneliness of all. Seeing everything break after that...

     Seeing Tooru-san turn his back with that look of utter disdain...

     Seeing his brother's sacrifice...

     If that had been his destiny this whole time, none of the smiles he remembered could ever have been anything but lies. Tobio took a long drag on his cigarette, wishing he could wipe that past out of his memory, but never able to wish it hard enough to make it true. Because what he wanted most of all, if only he could force the truth out of Tooru-san, meant he could never forget. And for that, he would chase the shadow of his past. Because that was all that mattered.

     The unconscious boy rolling by on the stretcher was none of his concern. He was alone now, and that was all he needed to be until he could make Tooru-san face him again, and see him this time.

     "It's awful," the freckled boy standing next to the tall blond said. Had he introduced himself as Yamaguchi when those two had stopped him in Nakano? "Shouyou had to witness Kuroo, someone he cared for so much, taking Kenma's life... who meant the world to him. How can anyone reach him now, without knowing what he's been through?"

     Shit.

     Someday, Tobio thought, stabbing out his cigarette and leaving it to fall on the floor. Someday he'd learn not to care, like Tooru-san. And maybe that would be the day he'd win. For now, however, he pushed through the crowd without so much as an excuse me, and headed for the catatonic Shouyou's bedside. Because today wasn't that day.


End file.
